Mexican cartel leader, 34, gets 7 life terms in US prison

SAN ANTONIO – Prosecutors in Texas say an assassin and gun runner for Mexico’s violent Zetas drug cartel must serve seven consecutive life terms in a U.S. prison.

Marciano “Chano” Millan (MEE’-yahn) Vasquez was sentenced Wednesday in San Antonio. A jury last July convicted Millan of 10 drug and weapons-related counts, including killing while engaged in drug trafficking.

Investigators say the 34-year-old Millan, jailed since his 2015 arrest in Texas, was a regional leader of the cartel in Piedras Negras, Mexico.

Witnesses testified Millan worked with other cartel leaders to bribe politicians and kill dozens of people to protect drug smuggling.

Testimony indicated Millan in 2013 used an axe to dismember a girl and burned her body in front of her parents — to punish her father — then ordered the parents killed.